cinnakuuri's reviews
105 reviews

Circe by Madeline Miller

adventurous challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Money, Health, and the Environment by Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

Adolfo Kaminsky: A Forger's Life by Sarah Kaminsky

challenging reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World by Leslie Kern

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

Japan Unmasked: Understanding Japan and its people by Kiyoshi Matsumoto
Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.

Filing this under DNF for the time being because it's been a while since I've had the interest in this title. I do hope I'd be able to rekindle my curiosity for this book, though. I just don't think I'd be in the mood for Japanese history in a while.

Games: Agency As Art by C. Thi Nguyen

I liked the premise of this research, but I can't say I was hooked enough to learn about the details. I'm filing this under DNF because I want to start over with a clean slate for 2023. Who knows, though? I might just get back to reading this when the time comes.

The Last Children of Tokyo by Yōko Tawada

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I can see why this book won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if there's any advice I can give to future readers, it's to take this more as an allegory of society's modern ills. There's a lot to glean from how older generations have betrayed the younger generations by leaving them with a world that does little to make them thrive. I highlighted a lot of text from its pages because the author was brave enough to say what people need to hear, no matter how painful.

So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport

informative reflective slow-paced

2.25

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But to claim that success relies on skill alone does everyone a disservice, when in truth privilege also plays a lot into what doors are open for us to begin with. There's virtue in working hard in honing our skills if we want to focus on things that are within our control, but at the end of the day poverty is by no means a moral failing in and of itself.

In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West by Wendy Brown
Did not finish book. Stopped at 6%.

In as much as I wanted to continue reading this book, it's just too dense and full of jargon for me to appreciate the ideas as they are. It's too hung up on theoretical concepts that it forgets how to explain to its readers what all this means for our lives.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It was going to be fun, they said. I should read it, they said. Somehow I came in expecting a light Japanese novel from a cat's perspective, but I ended up sniffling back snot and tears in the middle of the night. I don't want to spoil anything because it's truly an experience getting into this blind. What a fascinating perspective on how life is short, from a creature that lives an even shorter life.